{{short description|Anti-communist CIA front organization}} The '''National Committee for a Free Europe''', later known as '''Free Europe Committee''', was an anti-communist Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) front organization,<ref>{{cite book|last=Prados|first=John|title=Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA|date=2006|publisher=Ivan R. Dee|isbn=9781615780112|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3OCDelYICIsC&pg=PA47 47]|language=en}}</ref> founded on June 1, 1949, in New York City, which worked for the spreading of NATO influence in Central and Eastern Europe and to covertly destabilize Eastern Bloc countries.
==History== The committee was founded by Allen Dulles, later to be Director of Central Intelligence, in conjunction with DeWitt Clinton Poole. Early board members included Dwight Eisenhower, Lucius D. Clay, Cecil B. DeMille, Henry Luce, Mark Ethridge, Charles Phelps Taft II and DeWitt Wallace.<ref>Weiner, Tim: "Legacy of Ashes", page 36. Doubleday, 2007.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Shipkov |first1=Michael |title=Breakdown |date=1950 |publisher=National Committee for a Free Europe, Inc |page = Inside Front Cover}}</ref> From 1951 to 1952, Charles Douglas Jackson served as its president. The organization created and oversaw the anti-communist broadcast service Radio Free Europe.<ref>[http://www.evz.ro/article.php?artid=292841 Mihail Bumbes - Un simbol: Europa Libera -Evenimentul Zilei Nr. 4989, 20 Februarie 2007]</ref> CIA subsidies to the Free Europe Committee ended in 1971 which caused restructuring to its operations.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080311225404/https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2007-featured-story-archive/a-look-back.html A Look Back… The National Committee for Free Europe, 1949]</ref>
The Free Europe Committee sent balloons with leaflets from West Germany to the Eastern Bloc countries. Each balloon was able to drop 100,000 leaflets.<ref name="Magazines1956">{{cite journal|author=Hearst Magazines|title=Popular Mechanics|journal=Popular Mechanics Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-EDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA151|date=February 1956|publisher=Hearst Magazines|page=151|issn=0032-4558}}</ref>
==See also== *American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia *Balloon campaigns in Korea, for similar balloon-and-leaflet campaigning by South Korean NGOs. *Brutus Coste *Crusade for Freedom *"Free Albania" National Committee *Committee for a Free Lithuania
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == *[https://archive.org/details/TheSovietPeaceMyth_130 ''The Soviet Peace Myth''] by Leon Dennen, published by the NCFE
{{Soviet Union–United States relations|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}}
Category:American organizations established in 1949 Category:Anti-communist organizations in the United States Category:Political advocacy groups in the United States Category:Soviet Union–United States relations Category:Organizations established in 1949 Category:Central Intelligence Agency front organizations